Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. Reduces Holdings in AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC)

Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. decreased its holdings in AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) by 44.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 18,862 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 15,282 shares during the quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.’s holdings in AGNC Investment were worth $181,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in AGNC Investment by 14.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 83,316,872 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $767,348,000 after acquiring an additional 10,316,999 shares in the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. increased its holdings in AGNC Investment by 18.0% in the 1st quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 16,996,741 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $162,828,000 after acquiring an additional 2,589,020 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in AGNC Investment by 18.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,614,721 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $134,645,000 after acquiring an additional 2,311,105 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in AGNC Investment in the 4th quarter worth approximately $87,269,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in AGNC Investment by 24.9% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,378,470 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $58,746,000 after acquiring an additional 1,273,565 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 38.28% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other AGNC Investment news, EVP Bernice Bell sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.88, for a total transaction of $71,040.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 374,019 shares in the company, valued at $3,321,288.72. This represents a 2.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Donna Blank sold 17,218 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.67, for a total value of $149,280.06. Following the sale, the director owned 90,345 shares in the company, valued at approximately $783,291.15. This trade represents a 16.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 139,384 shares of company stock valued at $1,228,039. 0.42% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on AGNC shares. Argus reissued a “hold” rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on AGNC Investment from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Jones Trading lowered their price target on AGNC Investment from $10.25 to $9.50 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of AGNC Investment from $8.50 to $9.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their target price on shares of AGNC Investment from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, AGNC Investment presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $9.79.

AGNC Investment Stock Performance

NASDAQ AGNC opened at $9.27 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.46 billion, a PE ratio of 23.18 and a beta of 1.28. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.17 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $9.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 0.28 and a quick ratio of 0.28. AGNC Investment Corp. has a 1-year low of $7.85 and a 1-year high of $10.85.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $846.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $436.71 million. AGNC Investment had a return on equity of 20.36% and a net margin of 14.91%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.58 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that AGNC Investment Corp. will post 1.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AGNC Investment Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a jul 25 dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 31st will be given a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 31st. This represents a yield of 15.2%. AGNC Investment’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 360.00%.

AGNC Investment Profile

AGNC Investment Corp., formerly American Capital Agency Corp., is a real estate investment trust. The Company invests in agency residential mortgage-backed securities on a leveraged basis. Its investments consist of residential mortgage pass-through securities and collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs) for which the principal and interest payments are guaranteed by a government-sponsored enterprise, such as the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), or by the United States Government agency, such as the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae) (collectively, GSEs).